


Accepting the Name

by celestialshimmer



Series: (voices) soft as thunder [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Mentions of prior character death, Minor Character Death, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-06
Updated: 2014-05-06
Packaged: 2018-01-18 12:34:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1428718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celestialshimmer/pseuds/celestialshimmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of how Albus Severus Potter got his name.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Accepting the Name

Ginny loved Luna. She really did. It wasn’t technically her fault. Really, the tattoo had been Neville’s idea in the first place. But Luna had just _had_ to expand it and then misinterpret Al’s question and _jesusfuckwhy_.

See, the three of them had agreed they should honor their D.A. Four dozen teenagers who had been under their leadership, who had been their responsibility. Four dozen of them who had died. They’d sacrificed their lives, and it was only right to give them a memorial. Fuck the granite thing they’d put up in the Ministry, how could an impersonal granite spike do justice to their sacrifices?

Neville suggested it. Make their own bodies into a memorial, tattoo all the names on their arms. And it was a perfect idea. Write the names in ink under their skin; don’t let them ever be forgotten. Let the black script be like a permanent black armband of mourning. If they could ask those kids to fight, to die, they could damn well do this for them.

But of course, Luna wanted to do more. Four dozen names weren’t enough for her. The D.A. made up the majority of those who laid down their lives in the battle, but others had as well. Didn’t they have to remember them too? And the war had taken so many other lives. The battle was only the beginning of the end to all the deaths Voldemort caused. In scrolling black ink, Luna wrote the names of every single victim of Voldemort upon her arms and then extending to her sides and back. She researched to see who had died during the very beginning of Voldemort’s rise. The members of the Order of the Phoenix before it ever became the Order of the Phoenix, the Muggle-borns who had been murdered in the early ’70s for daring to pursue prominent positions in the wizarding world, the purebloods who were prospective Death Eaters in Voldemort’s eyes but resoundingly refused and paid so dearly for it. She went on like this, meticulously including everyone and not stopping even when she’d reached May 2nd, 1998. There were still deaths after that, people whose fate had been determined during the battle but survived a little longer, like Anthony who’d died days later or Eleanor years later. Every Muggle-born who’d been imprisoned in Azkaban, or every person like her who’d been imprisoned as a ransom to stop someone else from resisting Voldemort. It took her ages to learn all their names, but she did. She learned them and she checked to make sure she had them all. Thousands and thousands of names.

Were it not for the capabilities of magical tattoos, it would have been almost pointless. For there to be enough room, every name had to be minuscule, completely illegible. But magic that could allow ink to move on paper in a photograph could certainly allow it to move on skin in a tattoo, particularly the skin of a witch. Luna had each of her tattoos enchanted to enlarge if she placed her finger on it, meaning she could read the memorial of ink and skin whenever she chose. Every single name, unable to be forgotten by her.

Ginny had always found it beautiful. It was beautiful that she’d gotten tattoos of the names of people whom even Luna admitted she didn’t like, but whom she could certainly love. Namely, Severus Snape. He had been a nasty bully, but he had also been a person and that was more than enough for Luna Lovegood to love him. He had given his life to stop Voldemort, and so no matter how much Luna disliked and disapproved of what he’d done with the rest of his life, it was enough to grant him a spot on her memorial.

Ginny found it a lot less beautiful when Al found the damn names.

Or rather, Luna _pointed them out_.

Again, Ginny didn’t blame Luna. She just misunderstood the question. “Auntie Luna, which of your names is the one most what a wizard would have?” A seven year old’s lisp made that hard to understand, surely, along with the awkward phrasing. Luna had pointed in turn to "Albus" and "Severus", because she misunderstood and thought Al was curious about what names Muggles tended to have compared to the ones wizards would have. Not the ones boys tended to have compared to the ones girls did.

Ginny had been overjoyed that Al had been able to realize his gender so early. She and Harry were quick to comfort him when the worried tears began, assured him that of course they understood and would help him in every way they could. Harry had chuckled ruefully when Al explained he’d realized he _could_ be a boy when hearing James talk about the pro Quidditch player who’d recently released an interview explaining he had been called a girl when he was born and wanted to be an inspiration to any kids like him, which he’d called “trans”.

And then he said he wanted to be called Albus Severus now.

Ginny was proud of herself, she contained her reaction. She waited to release her horror until she and Harry were alone. _Harry, we’ve got to ask him to consider a different name! Forget everything about the namesakes, **Albus Severus**? For God’s sake, we didn’t name James “Sirius Remus” or “Remus James” because we agreed that he might dislike the name when he got older and it stuck out too much! ALBUS SEVERUS, Harry!_

He’d talked her out of it. Albus was so excited about his name, and now it was _his name_. He’d picked it out, and he had the right to do that. So what if it sounded odd compared to Muggle names like the ones they were both used to, despite Ginny’s pureblood family? Having traditional wizarding names didn’t exactly doom their son to becoming a pureblood supremacist, and what was most important was making sure he fully understood they accepted him as their _son_.

She’d agreed. But she was extremely, extremely relieved when a few weeks later, he asked them to start using “Al” as a nickname.

And one night, Ginny sat up in horror, thanking her lucky stars that Luna hadn’t pointed to the names in a different order because then he might’ve wanted his name to be in the different order. “Albus Severus” was one thing. “Severus Albus” might just be impossible for her to say without grimacing.


End file.
